You can grab Yu at 25 AAV, if you do nothing else that affects next years LT and be sitting in the 180 range, plus pre arbs and insurance. Or basically, around 205. Which is the LT next year.

Whether you do it or not, you're looking at the Dodgers sitting around 100 mill, needing to keep Kershaw, but with tons of money after that.

I don't know that they'd go 250+ on 2 guys in the same off season, but after looking at how good of shape they're in, its hard not to see it as a very real possibility.

So, horsefeathers it. Get Yu if you can.

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UMFan83 wrote:Someone show me a scenario where we sign Darvish and are still able to give $400m to Harper.

Tricking Heyward into opting out is an acceptable scenario.

You add prospects as necessary to sell off the final year of Zobrist's deal. That's pretty much it, pending discoveries from the season(e.g. Morrow's arm explodes and RP need reinforced). The assumption here is that they don't care about exceeding the luxury tax up to the 40 million threshold in which they start hurting draft picks.

UMFan83 wrote:Someone show me a scenario where we sign Darvish and are still able to give $400m to Harper.

Tricking Heyward into opting out is an acceptable scenario.

There's a bunch at varying levels of believability. Next year is not too tough to make everything work, while 2020 gets dicey. My guess would be in order of likelihood

1. Once the tv money kicks in Theo and Jed give zero horsefeathers about going $40+ million over the cap. Our handwringing right now will look funny when we look back.

2. The fact that we did everything via FA this year means our farm should be awesome again by 2020, and we'll use trades to fill any holes at that point.

3. Darvish gets an opt out after year 2, and unlike with Heyward he pitches well enough to use it.

4. One of Hendricks/Quintana/Chatwood is traded in the next two years and their spot is filled with a guy making league minimum, freeing money to use on the pen.

5. Heyward leaves either via opt out or a trade where we dump ~half his salary.

I was very dismissive of the Darvish idea a few days ago, but I would say it's reasonable to think at least one of these will end up being viable. I still would rather trade for Archer, but this could work.

as long as it doesn't take us out of the harper sweepstakes, i really love the idea of addressing the pitching 100% through free agency this offseason and collecting draft picks for both Jake and Davis. especially with a potential frontline guy like Darvish, and even more especially if they buy into the pitch tipping thing and feel it's a pretty easy fix. i'm not against trading from the major league team at some point, but putting the team in a position where they don't need to do this for, hopefully, the next couple of years is really appealing.

i'm also pretty worried about Lester going forward, so being in a spot where you're not relying on him quite as heavily is really important. a pitcher like Cobb doesn't accomplish that for me. Darvish clearly does.

UMFan83 wrote:Someone show me a scenario where we sign Darvish and are still able to give $400m to Harper.

Tricking Heyward into opting out is an acceptable scenario.

Heyward's NTC goes to 12 teams next year. The question becomes if that's enough to insure him that he won't be dealt.....Plus, there's definitely the chance, that he'd prefer to play elsewhere, than sit on the bench for the Cubs.

If I'm him and literally trying to make it impossible for the Cubs to deal him, here's my list of 12....

Batimore- I could see them showing interest at a discount. Take them out of the running.

Seattle- Its DiPoto and a player that's breathing. Can't give him a shot.

Oakland- I could see Billy taking him on at a discount.

Atlanta- He liked playing there before.

Philadelphia- Putting a few vets with their young core makes sense.

Arizona- Seems like a decent fit there.

Colorado- Maybe the air cures his bat?

San Fran- Makes sense.

San Diego- They're sniffing around vets too.

So, I left off some big names. Boston, the Yankees, the Nats, and the Dodgers. Why? Because they aren't going to want him at any price, when they're all going after much better players in FA.

The Rays aren't trading for him. Neither is KC, the White Sox, or the Indians, who'll be trying to keep what they've got together. The Rangers, Astros, and Angels either don't need him or would want a better player. The Mets aren't taking on part of a bad deal. The Marlins explain themselves. The Central Division isn't helping us add Harper.

I think he basically CAN keep himself from being dealt.

But, I'll go ahead and make a prediction.....He's going to be a Brave in 2019. They'll show they want him and he'll accept a trade there, that saves us whatever money we can get them to take on, without us getting anything in return. I think he'll see that he's not a full-time player for the Cubs and decide he'd rather play everyday.

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